June 10, 2011

Quora Hits the Shuffle Button for Q&A Randomness

The stickiness of Quora for engaged users has been the ability to rapidly find discussions of interest on topics you've selected to follow, or from people you've connected with on the network. But while that alone can provide you with plenty of both information and entertainment, the question and answer service took a queue from services like iTunes, Tumblr and StumbleUpon by adding a Shuffle function tonight, which brings you to random pages within the site. Let the hilarity ensue.

The Shuffle button, which appears at the bottom of any question and answer page, has three options, including showing both questions and answers, showing only open questions which lack answers, or just showing answers. You can also get to a random Quora page by going to the dedicated URL: http://quora.com/shuffle. Quora cofounder Charlie Cheever credited the new feature to two Quora employees, Shu Uesugi and Tracy Chou.

Quora's New Shuffle Button In Action

You Can Select What to See When You Shuffle On Quora

Using the Shuffle feature brings you to a random page on Quora, on any topic, be they posted by friends of yours or not, in topics you may follow or those you don't. Like StumbleUpon, there's certain to be a high bounce rate of people scanning quickly and hitting the "Next" button to get the next Shuffle. But it does have the option to spring people out of a self-reinforcing echo chamber and being exposed to more serendipity. No doubt Marc Bodnick loves it. Start shuffling at http://quora.com/shuffle.